Water Park of America

The Water Park of America is the largest indoor waterpark in the U.S., according to the company that built it. It is 70,000 square feet in size with a slide tower ascending nearly 10 stories. It opened for business in May of 2006. Located in Bloomington, Minnesota, it is a half mile from Mall of America and close to the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport.

The water park is attached to the Grand Lodge hotel. Both the hotel and the park are owned and operated by The Wirth Companies. Water-slide tubes exit and then re-enter the side of the building, giving it a unique look.

The Water Rides

The Water Park of America has a large slide tower, containing several water slides, and a large open area at the ground level that contains a variety of water rides.

The Slide Tower

The slide tower contains three body slides, two tube slides, and one family slide. Body slides are slides on which riders slide directly on their body, without an innertube. The body slides end with a long straight area containing a few inches of water that stops the slider.

The tube slides can be ridden on a two-person tube or a single-person tube and ends when the riders slide into a three-foot deep pool that empties into the Lazy River. The family slide is a tube slide with innertubes that seat up to four people.

The Ground Level

Below the slide tower is a large open area on the ground floor that contains: a wave pool, a lazy river, a “normal” swimming pool, a small pool with floating "logs" which children leap-frog across, a flow rider, two very large hot-tubs, and a large children's area for smaller children.

The wave pool runs for ten minutes and then is turned off for five minutes to let the machine that produces the waves cool. The wave pool is a tapered pool that gets about five and a half feet deep. It is also the beginning point and the ending point of the lazy river.

The lazy river is three-feet deep and makes a circuit around the outer perimeter of the park. One rides the lazy river on either a one-person or two-person innertube through “caves,” under bridges, past pools, and is eventually dumped back into the wave pool.

The “normal” swimming pool is four feet deep. One end has four basketball hoops where people engage in friendly games of water ball. The other end is for general swimming and includes a large floating bear that several children float on at once.

Next to the "normal pool" is a smaller pool that has floating cross-sections of “logs” attached to the floor of the pool like lillie pads. Suspended above the pool is a large cargo net for children to hold onto as the “leap frog” from one floating “log” to another.

The flow rider is a shallow but very fast moving sheet of water that one can surf or “boogie-board” on. The flow rider is 3 inches deep and the pool surface is foam-padded.

There are two very large hot tubs in the park. They are designed with a cave-pool theme. They look like pools of water in a cave and have water falls with warm water falling into them.

The children’s playground area contains a large playground apparatus with stairs, cargo netting, and slides sitting in a few inches of warmer water.

At the top of the playground is a large wooden bucket that slowly fills with water. Once it is full, it dumps a large quantity of water on anyone below it resulting in laughter and excitement from the children. The children’s playground has three small water slides that are designed for small children but which older children and adults also enjoy. The playground contains numerous other water toys and devices.

Food

The water park forbids people from bringing in outside food. All food must be purchased in the park. The water park contains a cafeteria that serves pizza, hamburgers, salads, desserts, chips, soda, etc.

Price and Other Accommodations

Prices

The prices vary depending on the time of the year, week, and day but generally one can expect to pay $23.95 per person for everyone one-year and older. Children under one are free. Anyone staying at the attached Grand Lodge hotel gets four free passes to the park. Prices for rooms at the Grand Lodge vary but one can expect to pay around $200 a night.

Life-vests

The water park also provides free life-vests for children. You are permitted to bring your own life-preserver as long as it is a Coast Guard approved flotation devise.

Towels

The water park also provides clean towels for free.

Northern Lights Arcade

The Northern Lights Arcade is located between the entrance to the Waterpark and the main lobby of the hotel. It is a large arcade primarily consisting of redemption games. However it also includes old favorites such as PacMan, and Pinball as well as newer games like Initial D, Maximum Tune, and Pump It Up, the most prominent and popular game in the arcade.

Controversy

Mall of America Lawsuit

Shortly before opening day, the Mall of America filed a lawsuit against Water Park of America claiming trademark infringement. The Mall of America claims the water park name is too similar to the Mall of America name and could cause some to associate the two. The Water Park of America filed a counterclaim in the matter accussing the Mall of America of among other things knowing about Water Park of America's use of the name since the Fall of 2003, encouraging the use of the name, and encouraging the Water Park of America to spend millions of dollars advertising and promoting the name up until March of 2006. Water Park of America went on to claim that the reason Mall of America changed its position became clear in a press release in which the Mall of America announced it was going to build its own water park as part of Phase II. The parties have settled the dispute under confidential terms.

External links

Official Site The Water Park of America official site